The World Around Us

Hermione woke up to Malfoy pushing her violently off of him.

"Get off me you filthy Mudblood!" he yelled, forgetting his fear of being hexed.

"Wha..huh?" she said sleepily, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Sleep on me, you dumb-"

"What is your PROBLEM?" she screamed, wide awake now.

"Sleeping on me! You were sleeping on me!" he yelled, scrambling to his feet and onto one of the high-backed chairs.

"Yeah, well, you weren't complaining last night," she replied dryly, though she was sick with shame inside. Why had she leaned back on him? Not pulled away? Disgusted with herself, she shook her head.

"What do you mean, I wasn't complaining last night?"

"I fell asleep on top of you, didn't I? You didn't push me away when I fell asleep," she said, not wanting to reveal her choices in the middle of the night.

"Yeah well, I was tired too," he said angrily, though he knew it was a lame excuse.

"Well, whatever," she answered dismissively, and got up to smooth her robes. "I'm heading down to breakfast. See you tonight."

"Not if I can help it," he muttered, but made no actual reply.

She exited the guest common room swiftly and walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast. She was trying to ignore it, but she was starving.

When she arrived, she sat down at the Gryffindor table. She was immediately greeted with people shaking her hand and introducing themselves, mostly boys, same age as her. She saw the familiar girl from the previous day a little ways down the table from her.

"Hi, again," Hermione said politely, smiling at her.

"Hello," replied the girl shyly. "Why aren't you sleeping in Gryffindor tower?"

"Because, there isn't any room in the seventh-year girls dorm, so I sleep in the guest rooms on the seventh floor," Hermione lied quickly, glad to have a story at hand.

"Ah," the girl said, but before she could say anything else, guys were all over her, talking and chatting.

"So, did the Sorting Hat sort you?"

"You're in Gryffindor now?"

"You coming to class with us?"

"Yes, yes, and yes," she said, laughing. "I'm Hermione, I came from home lessons, I had a private tutor. My parents felt it was time for me to join public education, you know, come here. I came with another person who also had a private tutor. His name's Draco Malfoy."

"Malfoy? Is he like, related to Lucius Malfoy? The one who left the school a few years ago?"

"Er, distant cousin, I think..."

"So let me guess, he's in Slytherin then," one of the boys piped up.

"Yep, most definitely," she replied. After that, no one really cared about the Malfoy boy. They were all asking her questions about herself and how she got there. All the boys introduced themselves, and only broke off talking when the owl post arrived. A large tawny owl delivered her class schedule. It hadn't changed much in twenty years; they still had Potions with the Slytherins, even back then. Thankfully, however, for Hermione, Snape obviously wasn't the Professor.

"Who teaches Potions?" she asked. If any of her new admirers were startled by her question, they didn't say anything.

"Professor Fernetia," said one of them. "she's nice."

Hermione sighed with relief. Scanning her timetable once more, she saw she didn't have Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins, but rather, with the Ravenclaws. She had the Slytherins for Charms, though. She scowled.

"What is it, Hermione?" asked one of the guys.

"Oh, we have Charms with the Slytherins," she said.

"Er... how do you know that's a bad thing?" one, named Chris, asked her.

"Oh I - I heard they're really nasty to people, you know," she mumbled.

"Yes, you heard right - they're awful. People reckon they're in with the Dark Arts," one named Shane told her.

Hermione gave a fake gasp. "They're not - not that bad, are they?" Silently, she snickered. She was doing a good job of feigning ignorance.

"Some of 'em, yeah," Chris said. As he was saying this, she looked at the other end of the Gryffindor table and gasped, for real this time.

"Uh, uh, who are those people?" she asked Shane, pointing.

"Oh, that's the infamous five," he replied. "James, his girlfriend Lily, and his friends, Remus, Sirius, and Peter. They're our year, but they keep to themselves mostly. Lily sometimes hangs out with her dorm-mates, but she just started dating James this year, so she's been with them mostly since."

"Oh my god," she said, slumping down in her chair.

"Why? What's wrong? Do you know them?" he asked her.

"Well, you could say that... vaguely, of course," she replied.

"What's wrong with them?" Chris asked, concerned.

"Nothing, no, I just, they remind me of people from my past," she said, thinking about the irony of her words and wanting to let out a stupid little laugh.

"So, Shane, you share a dorm with them?" she asked.

"Yeah, but I mostly hang out with Chris, here. He's a year younger than me, but he's a good kid," he said in a patronizing way, causing Chris to throw toast at him. "I hung out with those kids the first year, but they formed a tight group... I kind of gave up on them."

"That's kind of sad," she replied, feeling bad for him.

"No, no, you could tell, you know? It was like, they were going to go somewhere together. They had a future together. I've never seen a closer bunch of friends. I don't feel bad, I'm happy for them."

"Yeah, they have a future together alright," she muttered. "So, Charms first? We'd better get going."

"You don't have any of your books," he said.

"Oh right! Oh, damn, I'll have to uh, ask Flitwick if I can borrow a textbook and then talk to Dumbledore after Charms," she said, more to herself than anything.

"Alright, well, see you in Charms," Shane said, getting up from the table and walking towards class.

She sat, unmoving, and not particularily eating either, at the table. Not able to move, she was almost frozen with the overwhelming feeling that was coming over her. It was all too much, being in the past, trapped there for god knows how long, and now that she knew the Marauders were there... Sirius, and Lupin... and Harry's dad - she felt a lump forming in her throat - and Peter, the traitor, who betrayed them.

'Maybe I can prevent it... stop him from doing it...' she thought. 'Maybe...' but then she confused herself thinking about how if she HAD done something, things would already be changed in the future, so obviously she didn't do anything, but maybe she could. But then what if things did turn out different? Mixing herself up, she was almost late for class. Past or not, she did NOT like to be late for class.

She arrived at the class with more time than she thought, and students were just now filing into their seats. They were obviously splitting into pairs for this class; Lily and James were sitting in the corner, flirting, and Remus was sitting with Peter. Sirius was still searching for a partner, sitting at his desk and looking around for someone to take the seat next to him. Without thinking, she threw herself into it.

"Uh... hi," she said, a little embarrassed.

"Well, hello," Sirius replied, clearly turning on his charm. "New girl, right?"

She was really, really creeped out with him hitting on her. That was just wrong, in her opinion. "Er, yes, I am."

"Nice to meet you, and your name is?"

"Er, Hermione."

"Very nice to meet you," he said again, holding out his hand. "I'm Sirius."

"Nice to meet you too," she said nervously, shaking his hand. She was really weirded out by the whole thing.

Looking up, she saw Draco enter the room with a group of Slytherins. One girl with a particularily high-pitched voice was touching his arm excessively and sat down next to him as her partner.

Sirius continued to hit on her throughout the lesson. She couldn't handle it much longer, so when he asked about her past relationships, she started talking smoothly with an idea.

"Oh, well, I was in this long term relationship, but she broke up with me... things just haven't been the same since," she replied, faking sadness.

"Wait, did you just say, SHE?" he asked, quite surprised.

"Yes, er, her name was, uh, Ginny," she lied, knowing that no one named Ginny existed yet. She laughed inwardly at the use of her friend's name.

"Oh, well, thats cool," he said, though he looked disappointed. "I mean, its sad, that she left you and all, but I mean, uh..."

"Don't worry about it," she told him, knowing he was at a loss for words. Thankful to have him off her back, because she was getting way too creeped out, she started talking about Charms.

"So, Professor Flitwick is to teach us the Protean Charm today?" she asked.

"Yes, we started the theory yesterday, but I think we actually get to try it today," he said.

"Neat," she replied, already knowing how to do it.

When it came time for everyone to try it, she accomplished it right away of course, then blushed when everyone clapped.

"Wow, you're a charms whiz," Sirius told her, grinning.

"Thank you," she replied modestly. Her pride at being able to do it was broken only when she looked up to see Draco glaring at her, obviously thinking her to be a show-off.

She kept her head down after that, not demonstrating or making any sort of scene. She still talked with Sirius, however, and by the end of class, he wanted to introduce her to his friends. She would be glad to have friends here in this alternate reality, but she was nervous meeting them. It was just so weird... weird. It was a word she'd used excessively as of late; but how else does one express what its like to go back in time and meet people such as your best friend's dead parents? And to meet Peter... her fists clenched in rage as he herded her towards them and saw Peter smiling and laughing with them.

"Hey, guys, this is the new girl," Sirius said, his arm around her in a friendly manner. "her name's Hermione."

"Hi," was all Hermione could say, looking around at the other four, now grouped together at the back of the classroom.

"Hey there," Lupin said, clearing his throat and shaking her hand. "I'm Remus."

"Hi," said Peter, shaking her hand and she clenched her teeth against the protests wanting to come out.

"Lily," said the red haired girl, shaking Hermione's hand in turn and smiling in a friendly manner. "And this is my boyfriend James."

"Hello," he said, sounding extraordinarily like Harry, and making her feel really odd.

"It's nice to meet you all. I've been talking to Sirius here all lesson," she said, motioning towards him.

"Ah, Padfoot, have you been trying to get a date already? This early in the day?" James asked, grinning.

"Not successfully," he replied with a laugh.

"What, H, he not your type?" James asked her.

"Not quite," she said, smirking. She'd never once said she didn't like guys - only that she had a relationship with a girl. In case she did start dating someone here (which she told herself she wouldn't, as it would be just too weird) she couldn't exactly say she 'was' anything. Which she wasn't.

"She just got out of a relationship," Sirius supplied.

"She was so good to me..." Hermione lamented, laying it on thick.

"She?" asked four people at once.

"Yes...my beautiful Ginny," she replied, with faux-sad eyes.

"She broke up with her," Sirius told them.

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that," Lily said, looking sincerely sympathetic towards her. Hermione felt a little bad for lying.

"Well... nothing I can do, right?" she asked, as they all walked out the door and down to the Great Hall for lunch.